Shattering Bonds
by FanFanatik
Summary: [BRIT SPELL] The establishment of the bond has sent Raven into an intense emotional state of mind. Bringing her relationship with the boy wonder to the forefront and all the struggles it holds to bring these two titans together. Forcing her to make decisions and realisations that will either tear them apart or bring them a lot more intimately closer (ON HIATUS - At The Moment).
1. Ere Breaking Bond

**A/N: This is the *FIRST STORY* I have ever written. I'm still new to using FanFiction, so I don't really even know how the UI even works. This story takes place after Haunted (S03E05) and before Birthmark (S04E03). This follows up on the bond that was established in Haunted, when Raven entered Robin's mind.**

 **I would also recommend reading** **No Hesitation by XshadowXcullenX, as his iteration of the event that happened in Haunted (S03E05), perfectly sets up my story.**

* * *

'What have I done?' Raven asked herself. She was in her room pondering on recent events that had transpired in the last few days. Worried and fearful for future days to come, she needed to come up with something or else she is going to struggle with her emotions even more. Slade's recent attack from the dead, has found Raven already regretting her actions in establishing a bond between her and Robin. Apparently entering a person's mind and seeing the most intimate moments of their life can be considered an invasion of privacy but what was she supposed to do? Robin was getting hurt because he thought he saw Slade come back and she needed to see for herself.

'What am I going to do?' She paced herself in her room thinking intensely, wondering on what to do about her bond with Robin. Already, one of the side effects of having a bond with a person has taken effect of sharing emotions, and that is already giving Raven a heart attack.

'What's done cannot be undone, I must find a way to break this thing or control it.' After a few more moments in thought, she goes on to try and find answers in one of the many books lying around her room.

She activated her powers and she whirled the books around her room. It was like a tornado of knowledge and the musty smell of old pages flipping about in the air, really settled Raven's mood. 'Claszureme's Domain and Principles, A Silent Sister's Art, King Ulfric and the Stormcloaks,' Raven searched through her books to no avail. One of the great things about her personal library was that it was the perfect representation of her own life. Messy and unorganised but filled with an abundance amount of knowledge that is totally not interesting. It was getting late and Raven felt a bit sleepy but her will was as stubborn as her emotions.

She eventually came across a book that seemed somewhat related to her problems called 'Connecting to the Astral Plane? Could this be it?'

Raven was hopeful but her pessimism said 'Its two in the morning!' She sighed but ultimately rested her back against the windows behind her bed. She opened up the contents page and actually found something interesting.

She began reading: "A bond is a connection between two beings that links them together in all forms of the conscience. This can range from being connected: emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually. The strength of the bond is dependent on a wide variety of situational circumstances that can determine the rate of the bond's growth in strength. The establishment of a bond is a mystery but generally revolves around the two beings having some form of affection for one another. It has been suggested that if a bond has been established than both beings involved, will have their fates joined."

Raven became very concerned with herself and was in deep thought. 'This is a very intimate thing to have with another person,' she thought to herself.

'To have a connection like that with someone is even more scarier than marriage! And I have one with Robin.' Raven contemplated but she could think of nothing more as her brain has been fried from all the late-night reading. She was definitely not done reading the book yet, so she got a book stand and placed the book on it near her bed. This signifies the book's importance and its relevance to Raven now. From there, she slept soundly on her comfy and soft bed that she loves so much. She welcomed sleep with open arms and relished herself in its rewards.

* * *

The next morning came and she found herself waking up at 11:30 AM. 'Oh shit, Robin's not going to like this.' As she got out of bed and into a new set of clothing for the day, suddenly a surge of happiness washed over her.

'What the? Why do I feel so … Robin!' She put on her cloak and rushed outside her room, curious about what Robin was doing to be so unbelievably happy. She ran through the corridor; ignoring Beastboy's plea for stankball and into the living room with Cyborg playing a video game onscreen. Of course, Robin was just talking to Starfire by the kitchen table. She should've guessed it but to be this happy?

'Real cute Robin, real cute.' She decided to walk back to her room to use the toilet.

'Raven!' Robin called out, while Beastboy entered the room.

'Robin?' Raven responded and turned.

'Don't wake up so late okay? You missed out on breakfast this morning you know.'

'Yeah sorry, I was doing a little late night reading. Bye!' Raven rushed back to her room and used the toilet. By midday, she had her complementary herbal tea drink and had a more relaxed mind to properly think things over. Now she had a more proper environment to do more research but is this bond thing really so bad? Raven thought that it might be okay if it was Robin. He was the more serious member of the group and they have a good standing friendship that could definitely support this kind of thing. It definitely could have been a lot worse. For all she knew, she could have had a bond with a villain instead or one with Beastboy even. Raven shuddered at that notion. Yeah, definitely could have been a whole lot worse for her and this bond thing. Raven just hopes Starfire won't take it the wrong way. It was hard enough for Raven to bond with Starfire as it is, if the whole bond thing screws it up between the both of them, could Raven be able to handle it? She was jumping ahead of things though. She's been through tougher situations in the past. There's no reason why a bond with a friend should be so dangerous, right?

'I guess there's nothing wrong with being optimistic. After all, the reality of everything is not even that bad until it becomes bad.' For Raven, it was really just the future that was worrying her but Raven just couldn't stop overthinking the situation.

She took a deep breath and said 'Azarath Metrion Zinthos' calmly and slowly. From there, Raven continued where she left off from last night's reading.

'Your only worried because your clueless about this Raven, just read!' she said to herself.

She found out a few more things but only a few pieces of information relating to actually breaking a bond. The best she could find were recounts on people's experience in doing so. Recounting that it was either one of the most painful experiences of their life or that it didn't even really work. A Porritra monk explains that like most things related to emotions, forcing control over it only leads to suffering. Everything else after that, were just cautionary warnings on the dangers of trying to break a bond and the difficulties in doing so.

She decided that the best course of action was to simply just meditate more and try to see if she can at least live with the bond until she knew more about it. However, there was one question that has plagued her mind ever since that night with Slade. It was a daunting question that would ultimately determine the course of events for the next few weeks. Could she even explain it? She doesn't even know a lot herself, how could she bring herself to say anything at all to begin with? Either way, she felt uncomfortable with either option anyway.

Should she tell Robin about their bond with each other?

* * *

 **A/N: Anyway, thanks for reading and please review.**

 **My grammar and punctuation isn't perfect and I would like some "gentle" feedback as this is the first time I've ever opened my own story for other people to read. This is more or less just a way for me to exercise my "skills" as a writer, before I try to write up my magnum opuses. So don't expect anything big from this story that has some "scale" to its climax. Just a sweet, small story about what COULD have happened if Raven's relationship with Robin was a bit more personal than how it was done in the show.**


	2. Emotional Ties

" _All the bonds we share are important_ "

The whole day for Raven was filled with nothing but thinking, reading and meditating. Thinking about what to do, reading when she she's unsure and meditating to calm done. 'He has the right to know and maybe he can help me cope with this whole situation, if he knew as well,' Raven said.

'But how would the team react to this? Would they even care? How would Starfire react to it? Should she even tell the rest of the team?' There were so many variables to consider if she told them that, maybe it was best to just try to stay quiet about it until she can figure out how to deal with it.

'Nghhhhh … uhhhh' Raven groaned at the onset of sudden emotional surges that kept pervading throughout her body.

Raven said 'Goddammit Robin, stop being around Starfire so much!' Raven likes feeling happy just as much as the next person but to feel happiness on this large a scale was just too much for her. She set aside her book on the bed and sat on the floor to quickly meditate.

'Azarath Metrion Zinthos' said Raven. She stayed in that position for a good 10 minutes before getting back to reading.

Unfortunately, before she could even get to the bed she suddenly groaned again from Robin's emotions, 'Arghhh … ahhhhhhhh' this time however, she felt something different. Her heart was beating real fast and her body temperature was rising. Was she sick or something? This was different to happiness but it felt similar to it at the same time, what was it? The emotions were getting stronger by the second and it almost made her lose her sense of balance just because of how powerful these emotions were. Reaching deep into her subconscious, she found one of her emotions being fairly active in her mind. She was surprised to see … Love? Love was apparently the emotion she was feeling and that's what Robin was feeling as of this moment.

'So, this is what love feels like huh, interesting,' Raven's experience with love was fairly limited. She knew and understood the idea behind love but never really felt love. However, because of how powerful love was; BOOM! Comes the fifth book to explode and Raven was having a fairly annoying time fixing her books with telekinesis.

Robin's emotions were settling down now but for Raven, this couldn't go on much longer. Raven would break by the time dinner came about with the way her day had been going with this. She decided to see Robin himself and see if she can get him to do something else to get his mind of Starfire.

'I'll give you something to love Robin,' said Raven in a menacing way, not realising how awkward it was to say that. She walked out of her room, into the hallway and into the living room but she couldn't see Robin, just Beastboy and Cyborg making the world's largest collection of waffles, for some reason.

Raven asked them both, 'What are you idi- Anyway, have you guys seen Robin?'

'No sorry,' replied Cyborg.

'Probably with Starfire if anything, those two have been together a lot lately, isn't that weird Raven? By the way, want some waffles?' said Beastboy with a cheeky little smile, as he passed a waffle over to Raven.

'Gee wiz, it's almost like they have feelings for each other,' Raven replied sarcastically while also declining the waffle and rolled her eyes. Then came a sudden silence and the atmosphere became uncomfortably tense. Cyborg just looked like he just realised Sarah Hyland and Jennifer Lawrence are the exact same age and it took a total of 120 seconds for Beastboy to realise she was being legit ironically. The smell of burning waffles was filling the area now and Cyborg and Beastboy are still processing the sudden realisation that seems so unbelievably obvious, once you realise it.

'Oh my god! Raven how did you know?!' Cyborg yelled, knocking over 10 piles worth of waffles in the process. Beastboy did his best to stop most of them but Raven saved him by stopping the rest.

'I figured it out? I guess,' Raven replied, not knowing how to properly respond to Cyborg.

'Oh my god, it all makes sense now, holy crap! Oh my god!' continued Cyborg.

'Right well, uhhhhh I'll just leave you guys to contemplate over it while your waffles are getting burnt,' Raven left, while Cyborg and Beastboy attempted to salvage what was left of the 12 waffles that were being burnt.

However, Raven's instincts seemed to be fairly sharp for her. She looked at Robin's door to his bedroom but for some reason, she had a feeling she wouldn't find Robin there. She left and instinctively walked to the gym and there he was, strangely enough. Over the last few weeks, Robin has focused more on body building than he was on sparring and it's safe to say, he's showing progress. However, it would appear that for this circus performance, Robin is sparring instead! In front of Starfire. Yes, it would appear that the primal alpha male is seeking the much-needed approval from the much-desired mate, who at first appears fairly impressed but shocked and concerned when the male injures his right hand in the process of hitting a wooden dummy.

It would appear that Robin's attempt at impressing Starfire with techniques his learnt over his time as a hero, has worked in more ways than one. 'My dear friend Robin, are you hurt?' asked Starfire. She went over to Robin's side quickly and caringly held his hand for a closer inspection.

'I'm fine Starfire, really I'm fi- ' Robin responded to Starfire and found himself being closer to her than normal. This made Raven lose her shit with another emotional surge pervading through her body.

'Oh my god! I can't believe how much of a love-struck doofus you are!' Raven said, while she walked over to the couple as well as exploding a metal barrel used for training. Raven has had enough of Robin's stupid emotions, constantly interfering with her day at home.

'Give me your hand' Raven took Robin's hand and healed it in seconds.

'Uhhhh thanks I guess,' confused and surprised at both Raven's appearance and sudden outburst.

'So nice to see you friend Raven, it is nice to know that we can depend on you for such things and see that you are available for it as well,' Starfire said, while also looking fairly surprised and happy at Raven's sudden appearance.

'You know me Starfire, always there to help,' Raven said sarcastically.

She let go of Robin's hand and went on to say 'Hey Robin, you should probably check on what Cyborg and Beastboy are doing in the kitchen.' Robin sighed and smacked his hand on his forehead and proceeded to the kitchen area to see what kind of mess they made.

Starfire proceeded to follow but was stopped by Raven who said 'Best not to follow Starfire, you won't like what will happen next.'

Starfire sighed and proceeded back to her room, 'Friend Raven, how much pain do you think a heart can endure before the love is no longer worth the suffering?' Starfire turned to ask this with a saddened expression.

Raven was caught a little bit off-guard with this question but kept her composure nonetheless. _I DON'T KNOW!_ She needed to think fast and come up with something to satisfy Starfire's heart, 'The greater the suffering, the more sweeter the joy of successful love that comes later.' Starfire's mood seemed somewhat perkier after hearing that and left her for her room.

'Phew' Raven said, after sitting on one of the benches and contemplating on what just went down.

'That should give me some peace until dinner' she said and lied down on the bench for some peace and quiet.

* * *

" _A bond is as unpredictable as is the people it makes a connection with_ "

She felt rather impressed with herself, that she was able to separate the two as swiftly as she did but didn't realise who was going to wake her up. 'Raven' the mention of her name immediately woke her up and to her shock and horror, it was Robin who woke her up.

'Oh Jesus, don't wake me up like that Robin' Raven said as she slowly sat back up on the bench.

'Sorry' replied Robin. An awkward silence permeated throughout the gym and Raven really wanted to leave but found herself really reluctant to do so.

'Raven, what did you mean by love-struck doofus?' Once Robin asked this, Raven absolutely froze. Thinking and thinking on what to say and do, she found herself caught off guard yet again.

'Let's just say that the whole team is not so blind to what you guys are doing,' Raven used this line to seductively wink at Robin, while also moving to exit the gym at the same time.

However, Robin stopped her and continued to question her, 'The whole team found out because you told them and they said you apparently figured it out? What exactly does that mean Raven?'

Raven was getting slightly nervous about this, mainly because she just didn't have anything to say. Should she use this moment to tell him about the bond? Or should she suspiciously risk trying to defend herself.

After what seemed like an eternity in limbo but only a few minutes in real life, Raven said 'I think it means that I'm not so blind to not see that you guys look too cute together for you to stay friends of course! But Robin, remember this, relationship requires commitment and you need to make sure that you are ready to make a commitment like this. Starfire is very sensitive, so please be aware of the consequences that are involved with committing to a girl like Starfire,' Raven wasn't even aware of what the hell she was even saying to be honest. She just hoped that her answer was able to satisfy Robin's detective mind. Robin moved his face a little closer to Raven's and in response Raven jerked herself forward and immediately left Robin where he stood. She could feel the slight annoyance from Robin that clearly indicates that he was not satisfied with what she said.

'It's done, let's just get back to my room before anything else happens,' Raven thought to herself.

* * *

" _A bond is always between two people, never more, never less_ "

Over the course of the next few days, Raven continued to learn more about her bond with Robin. Each day passed and Raven adjusted accordingly to the emotions that were being passed from Robin. At the same time, however, the bond grew stronger as well. It was getting harder and harder for Raven to continue this routine but she wasn't ready to tell Robin yet. She needed more time and she still had more questions about it as well. She just hoped that she has made the right decisions so far.

* * *

 **A/N: Anyway, thanks for reading and please review.**


	3. The Morning Sleep

When Raven finished her turn, she looked around the classroom realising she must've fallen asleep or something. 'Raven! Pay attention!' yelled the teacher, who was annoyed at Raven's curious and passive attitude.

'Sorry miss,' replied Raven. It felt strange but for some reason, Raven felt very empty in the classroom.

She looked around the room and saw nothing much but she did see that she was sitting in the centre of the classroom. Her uniform looked ugly and the green overall-like skirt, didn't help in not looking like she her grandma designed the uniform. Everyone looked dead and they were just mindlessly looking at the chalkboard as the teacher was blurting out nonsense. Their vacant expression was unnerving Raven, for she was the only one who was not looking at the board.

'Raven! I said pay attention and look at the board!' The teacher yelled again, and Raven obediently sat up straight and looked straight at the chalkboard.

'Turn to page 666,' said the teacher. Everyone did so and they even did it in unison. Raven felt so out of place, in a room filled with geniuses who are having no trouble being in class.

When Raven turned to page 666, she found a letter. Pink, with her name written on the back and a bright red love heart to seal it. The paper felt really expensive, as there was this sense of weight and elegance to the feel and quality of the letter, it was quite obvious that it was a love letter. She absent-mindedly opened it to reveal that the letter was from … 'Robin!' She said out loud accidently. The teacher became silent, all the students started staring at her and the room looked like it just expanded by 10m squared.

'Did you have something to say Raven?' The teacher asked with the most questionable looking eyes.

'She has a note miss!' said one of the students sitting diagonally from her position, who also snatched the letter from her desk. Raven tried to grab the letter back.

'Give that back!' Raven said quietly.

'She's passing notes Miss!' Said another student at the back. The ruckus only lasted a few moments, until the student passed the letter to the teacher.

The teacher was about to read the letter until the student sitting beside Raven said 'No she's not! Raven would never do something like that! She's the most hopeful person I know, someone like that could never do anything wrong!' Raven looked to her right and saw Robin sitting next to her.

'Robin?' Raven said. This was confusing Raven so much. 'What is this? Where am I? Since when did schools go and buy their uniforms from the thrift shop? What the fuck is going on?!' Raven thought.

'Raven?' Robin responded with a perplexed look to his face. Than it changed to a slightly happier look, once he looked into Raven's eyes.

All of sudden, at a pace that took Raven by surprise, she found Robin getting out of his desk and motioning towards her. This continued until Robin put his hands on both her chair and her desk, and proceeded to movie his face towards Raven's and Raven found herself getting kissed by Robin. Nervous to move and too shocked to speak, Raven's heart was beating fast and it became more faster and faster as the distance between the two, grew shorter and shorter.

Raven was absolutely clueless to what was going on but she felt that both her and Robin, were the only real people in the classroom. It was hard to describe Robin's aura because, when she compared him to the other people in the classroom because there was something about Robin that made him standout.

'This must be a dream, it has to be,' Raven thought. From centimetres to millimetres, Robin was too close for anyone to think they were not kissing from their perspective.

Raven thought to herself, 'If this is a dream, 'Wake up now! NOW!'

 _"Death is an absolute escape from a bond_ "

Then Raven woke up. Sweaty and with a high heart rate to boot, the start of another day called for some serious meditation. 'Need to meditate, need to meditate, I need to meditate!' She thought to herself. Ignoring the tattered pages that laid across the entire floor and the smell of burnt paper that permeated throughout her room, she sat down and did as she always had done to control her emotions.

Suddenly she heard people knocking by her door and knowing how it usually goes down, when she tries to meditate through knocking, she answered the door.

'What!' Raven said in a slight out of breath way. All titans were present, except for Robin surprisingly.

'Raven, are you okay? Booms woke me up and I thought we were under attack but I heard them coming from your room. What happened?' Asked Cyborg.

'It's nothing, I just had a really bad dream, that's all. I just need some time to meditate to calm done, you know how my powers work,' Raven replied. All three titans looked at each other with both doubt and satisfaction to their faces. It was pretty clear, Raven was the one who woke them up from their appearances.

'Does your powers mean you have to wake us all up at 6:30 in the mor-!?' Cyborg interrupted Beastboy, before he could finish that last sentence by smacking his head and mussing up his hair and smiling nervously in worry of Raven's reaction.

'Remember friend Raven, you need only ask for assistance and we will be there to help clean up your room because from the looks of it, it appears that your books are all but destroyed,' said Starfire. All three of them left afterwards.

It was 6:30 AM and Raven wanted to meditate now that the three of them were gone, but the peaceful atmosphere that she felt in her room was gone with the smell of burnt paper filling the room and the tattered pages making her room look even more messier, replacing it instead. She needed to find another spot to meditate or relax or something to calm herself.

* * *

When Raven reached the rooftop of the tower, she was pleasantly surprised to see Robin standing there as well.

'What are you doing up so early?' Raven asked as she walked over to Robin's side.

'I could ask you the same thing,' replied Robin with a fairly nervous look to his face, that was strange. It was a dark and cloudy morning today, so there was no sunrise to watch.

'You okay Robin?' Sensing something wrong with Robin, Raven asks out of concern.

'Yeah, it's just … I don't know, I just had bit of a weird dream last night.' This surprised Raven in more ways than one.

'What was your dream about Robin?'

'It was so weird, I woke up in the middle of a classroom and I saw you sitting beside me. I couldn't say anything or do anything at all but then some guy took a letter from you and -'

'Stop! stop Robin,' Raven immediately started to walk away. She came to the rooftop to forget about that stupid dream not to be reminded about it, least of all by Robin, who just so coincidently had the same dream. The worst part about it was the fact that she knew, this was probably because of the bond they were sharing. Something Robin doesn't know about.

'You know something about this don't you Raven! I know you do.' Raven stopped in her place, when Robin shouted that out. She didn't want to talk about this, not now, not today. Raven was too tired to even really feel nervous about the direction this conversation was going but she found herself feeling a lot calmer now, then she felt 10 min ago at least.

She turned to him with a small smile and a weary look and said 'Hungry?'

* * *

" _A bond built upon love is the ultimate bond_ "

Both Raven and Robin proceeded back down to the kitchen area, were the both of them had some sort of hot drink to fill their stomachs for the rest of the morning.

'So, are you going to talk Raven?' Because of the dark clouds that shone through the windows of the living room, the room had a fairly bleak and lifeless appearance to it. They both sat down by the kitchen table and turned on some lights to see better.

'Sorry officer but I'm afraid I didn't do it,' Raven said in a ditzy way that gave the signal 'It's too early in the morning for this Robin and I really don't want to talk about this.' She didn't even have enough energy to even be sarcastic about it.

'Raveeeeennnn, come on don't be like this, I'm serious,'

'Yeah, I can tell Robin, I just hope you had put in enough caffeine in that coffee of yours, to survive this conversation,' Robin found himself laughing at that and also noticed how beautiful the herbal tea shined in the light.

'I'll have you know that this drink is a lot more powerful than anything you put in in that herbal tea drink of yours and I must say, you must feel how this coffee looks,' both noticing how Robin didn't bother with both sugar or milk.

'You're crazy you know that, I'm an emotional wreck but you're crazy! How can you possibly drink something as bland as that so early in the morning?!'

'Ssssshhh keep it down, the others are trying to sleep,'

'Look, how about I make you some herbal tea and you can try for yourself. Isn't herbal tea a personal favourite for a lot of the grandmasters of the order you practise and hold so dear?'

'Heh, I guess we have that in common, even your meditation practises are something that's preached,' Robin sipped his coffee at that.

'I support that' Raven bobbed her head in approval and sipped her drink at the same time as Robin.

'I guess we have a lot more in common than we realise huh Raven,' Robin looked down at his coffee while saying that and chuckled and smiled to think that he and Raven were so similar to each other. Then he looked at her.

'I guess so,' Raven paid no attention to Robin's stares. Her face was starting to turn a little red actually. 'Please stop looking at me Robin,' Raven thought to herself. She didn't like where this was going but she was enjoying herself so much right now.

'Raven look at me, please,' the room was silent for a while then Robin took the initiative to try and 'persuade' Raven into telling him something she doesn't want to tell Robin.

He proceeded to sit on the table, to be directly in front of Raven at a much closer distance and said, 'Rave-'

'Ahhhhhhhhhhh ohhhhhhhhhh,' Cyborg's yawn interrupted the two and both immediately looked towards his direction.

'What are you guys doing, so ear-' As soon as he got a proper look at what the two were doing, he stopped and saw something he could not believe he saw. Raven shocked and embarrassed, stood up and used this chance of awkward tension to escape back to her room.

Cyborg stood there looking at Robin and only said, 'Don't forget about Starfire Robin, remember her.'

'It's not like that!' Robin groaned at that because frankly, he doesn't know what it's like, that's the problem. Robin couldn't quite put his finger on what was going on between him and Raven but he could sense something, if anything. He's been fairly tolerant of it for a while and has done his best to ignore it but his curiosity is slowly growing.

It was like an itch that kept on changing places all over your body, everytime you tried to scratch it. It just bugs you in the most minimalist ways possible and those are usually the scratches you have to get rid the most.

However, he did get the sense that maybe it really was best to not inquire too heavily into it because generally people don't like to ask questions, they don't want to know the answer to.

* * *

" _While a bond can only have two participants, there is a third party to consider_ "

When Raven returned to her room, she collapsed on the floor and tried her best to keep her powers under control. Things around her room were moving but nothing was exploding, thankfully. 'Azarath Metrion Zinthos,' she chanted.

Once she was done chanting, she began to clean up her room a little. It would appear that things between Robin and Raven are getting more intense, as the bond grows day by day. From sharing emotions, to sharing dreams now, the bond was getting stronger, at a fairly worrying rate at that.

It had been around two and a half weeks, since the bond's establishment and things were getting tougher for Raven. For all the glory of Azarath, she prayed to be able to survive for just a few more weeks of this.

* * *

 **A/N: Anyway, thanks for reading and please review.**


	4. A Bloody Weak Bond

_"The stronger the bond, the harder it is to break it."_

Since that awkward moment in the kitchen, Raven spent her time trying to fix up her room a little. However, reanimating and mending pages from a destroyed book requires an enormous amount of concentration. This did allow for things between Raven and Robin to cool off though, as Raven decided to try and avoid Robin as much as possible. She was much too scared to have another confrontation from the boy wonder and that moment in the kitchen only made her even more anxious around him.

She did feel a sense of guilt for hiding this from him and was still pondering on when to actually tell him. Robin's drip feed of emotions clearly indicated that he was spending a lot more time with Starfire in the last few days. This annoyed Raven to a certain degree as she found love to be the most annoying emotion to deal with. _Your making me feel lovesick Robin!_ It was hard but Raven was strong, she wasn't going to let this bond control her. She hated the bond too much to let that happen. _Your pointless delusions of love, makes me want to throw up blow blunder!_

* * *

" _People are different; therefore, each bond behaves differently_ "

The dreaming aspect of Raven's bond with Robin was a lot weaker than their emotional connection. Not only that but it wasn't as active as Raven thought it would be. In fact, the dreams that they did share were never as intense as the time they shared a dream in the classroom.

Raven spent a lot more time in her room now and Robin spent a lot more time with Starfire. This created a rift between the two. This sudden gap of contact between both participants of the bond was very dangerous. It caused side effects that made the other yearn for the other's presence desperately. It was even more dangerous because of the fact that they were basically fighting the bond together, by avoiding each other. This unnatural force over the bond led to an immense amount of emotional strain for the two. Even meditation couldn't really release the emotional stress that was plaguing Raven's mind, but it still helped. Needless to say, this hurt the bond, a lot.

However, there were always those moments when Raven did bump into Robin. Those were the worst for her.

'Raven?' said Robin. There was a sense of delight and pain to the way Robin said Raven's name. These times were always short and quick but they always had an endearing effect on the both of them.

'Robin! Don't mind me, I'm just getting more tea,' _I miss you_ Raven replied. She always tried to make sure there was no room for awkward tension. Not even looking at his face, she ducked out of the conversation and into the living room. Everytime they interacted with each other, they would both feel happy and enticed but then they would feel stressed and nervous. That's life for the two titans but it was bearable nonetheless.

* * *

" _A bond is a two-way connection that requires both participants to cooperate with one another_ "

'Titans go!' Robin ordered. A call came for the titans to answer to and they all assembled in the garage together. It appears that Professor Chang has created earthquake generators to destroy certain parts of the city. This would enable his gang to start mining into parts of the city that would allow access to good amounts of natural resources. (A/N: I'm literally just writing out of my ass with this conflict.)

When the Titans arrived to an underground facility, a few kilometres away into a desert; Robin threw a birdarang to Professor Chang's computers (Causing it to explode) and blurted out 'Shake the professor away, keeps the city whole to stay.' Robin pondered if that actually made any sense but resumed to stand cool with his team.

'Are you kidding me! This time I actually tried to be discrete with this plan!' Professor Chang shouted for his men to fight them, while he prepped up an enormously large ray gun to shoot at the titans. Chang was located by a platform that was 100m above the ground floor. '70% downloaded!? This is not a time for you to be as slow as this city's shitty broadband wi-fi connection!' Chang kicked his gigantic super computer and proceeded to transmit the monitor's screen to this goggles, so the titans couldn't see the screen themselves. He put his detonator to his belt and proceeded to try and guard himself from the titans.

'Titans GO!' Robin shouted. Fighting ensued and everyone did their signature moves as per usual.

'Want some of this,' Cyborg prepped up his sonic cannon arm and shot at the back packs of Professor Chang's henchman. This allowed for Beastboy to turn into a T-Rex, while Starfire pushed Beastboy around the area. Simultaneously pummelling Professor Chang's henchman to submission and destroying about two million dollars' worth of equipment. Raven somehow found herself teaming up with Robin to take down Chang himself.

'Don't come any closer or I push this button and see your whole town destroyed Professor Chang held out a detonator to showcase his threatening safety. He smiled slightly, when he saw the two halting to a stop. He then used this moment to shoot his gun at the both of them and proceeded to check the percentage of the downloaded software for the earthquake generators to operate. '90%!' He chuckled slightly. Suddenly Robin dropped a smoke bomb around himself (But was not close enough to effect Chang).

'Raven now!' He shouted.

'Azarath Metrion Zinthos!' Raven used her telekinetic powers to motion the smoke into a violent gust towards Chang. This caused him to fly off the platform, shooting his gun into a wall and dropping his detonator.

However, Robin used this moment to throw a device to the detonator that would allow Cyborg to override its commands to not activate the earthquake detonators. The device found itself attached to the detonator and Robin shouted 'Cyborg now!'

'On it,' as Cyborg held out his left hand to show the diagnostics of the detonator, he quickly hacked most of the detonator's command system. Unfortunately, the detonator fell to the floor and found itself activated from the impact. Cyborg was only fast enough to stop all but one of the earthquake detonators.

Suddenly the earth started shaking and it was the generator at the titan's location that was activated. The ground was being torn apart and everyone tried their best to escape. Robin found himself falling off the platform and his grappling hook was shaken off from its attached position.

'Robin!' said Raven. She naturally saw the boy wonder falling and immediately flew to his aid. She couldn't remember what happened after that.

* * *

" _It is up to the individuals to make the most of their bond, even if the alternative is quite painful_ "

When Raven woke up, she found herself alone with the boy wonder. It appears that after the mini earthquake, Raven and Robin got separated from the rest of the group. She got up but found herself with a bit of a headache, 'Robin, what happened?'

'You saved me for one but it looks like we've stumbled across an underground mine'

'You think this is what Professor Chang was trying to access?'

'Probably but I don't know anything about this mine, which is the weird thing'

'How are the others doing?'

'Can't reach a signal unfortunately. Looks like we're stuck here, together,' Robin emphasised the "together" part in particular. She seemed surprisingly calm about being with Robin like this until she realised that she was in fact, alone with him.

'W- What do you suggest we do exactly?' _What do I do? what do I do?_ Raven was starting to get a little nervous about her current situation now. She had no idea where she was, it was dark and the ground was suffering from aftershock.

'I'd suggest using your powers to try and excavate our way out but the aftershocks, makes it too dangerous for that. Fortunately, my communicator is still able to send out a high frequency pulse, to record a response time for mapping an environment.' Robin brought out his communicator and saw a general mapping of their location within a 100m radius.

'Sonar, like a submarine, right?' Raven didn't even know her communicator could do that.

'Right, now we should be able to make our way out with this.' He started walking for a bit before turning to say 'You coming?' Raven followed behind, leaving behind the caved in entrance that was behind her. He then gave her a glow stick he kept on his belt and lit his own glow stick in the process. Raven noted the colour of the stick being the same as Starfire's bolt. _Bright green, just like Starfire's starbolts._

After a few dozen meters or so, another aftershock happened. Raven was quick to cover both herself and Robin and it only lasted for a few moments. Robin tripped in the process and found himself falling on Raven. This made it really hard for Raven to keep both her balance and concentration for the ceiling to not fall and crush them both. Once everything settled down, Raven blasted the rocks away and they both got back up to continue walking.

'You okay?' Raven asked.

'I'm fine,' Robin replied.

 _This is going to be a long trip_ Raven thought.

* * *

30 min later

* * *

For the majority of the time they spent walking the trail before them, both titans remained silent. Robin was dying to bring up the big elephant in the room but felt that the atmosphere of the moment was too fragile for it to be discussed. Raven however, was rather enjoying her time with the boy wonder. She liked the silent atmosphere that existed between the two. Robin's company seemed to give her a sense of peace that she wasn't able to get from meditation lately.

'I think we're almost there, my communicator seems to be picking up a vast open area that's 500m ahead of us,' Robin said. Robin's statement made Raven feel obliged to continue the conversation now.

'How have you been Robin?' Raven asked the first thing that came to her head. Needless to say, it was a pretty risky question to ask. Robin actually paused a little in response to Raven's question but Raven didn't notice and Robin quickly resumed walking.

'Been good, why do you ask?'

'Just concerned, if you have any injuries you can always ask me to remove the pain for you if you like.'

'Thanks, but aside from a few bruises that don't need healing, I'm good,' _Forget I even asked._ Obviously, Robin is being a little uncooperative here and Raven can sense the agitation he's feeling through their bond.

'You sure you're okay Robin? If its Starfire your worried about, I'm sure she's doi-'

'It's not that!' Robin yelled that out loud, which in turn caused an echo to occur. Noises could be heard from their position that indicated that parts of the mine were now collapsing as a result. Raven was beginning to be reminded of the incident back in the kitchen now. She was worried where this conversation would lead but she was also worried for Robin's sake as well. A silence started to creep in.

'What is it than Robin?' It took some courage for Raven to ask this but for the sake of releasing some stress for Robin, she did. She just hoped the conversation wouldn't turn south because of it.

He turned around to face Raven and said 'I … I …' He was being a little hesitant with his response. Raven could feel the confusion and was starting to feel bad about herself again. If he asked right then and there about their bond, Raven would answer back.

'I've been having this annoying bruise on my back for the past two hours and I don't think I can go on like this' One side of Raven wanted to slap the boy blunder's face after hearing that. Another side of Raven was angry over the fact that Robin made her nervous and anxious for no reason. Another side of Raven wanted to collapse on the floor for the release of tension in her mind. Another side of Raven was extremely relieved to hear that.

'You're not dead, Robin! Keep walking boy blunder,' She went on to grab the communicator from Robin's hand and decided that she was going to be leading from now on. Robin smirked a little at that and proceeded to even wrap his arm around Raven's neck for some leg support.

'What do you think you're doing!?' Raven freaked out a little but did not drop Robin.

'If you're not going to heal me, at least help me walk,'

'For 300m you've been walking fine, for another 450m you WILL walk fine' Raven's eyes turned red but that didn't sway Robin away.

'But the pain is so bad Raven, please find it in your heart to heal a broken man,' he's wailing cries of pain were pathetic and cringey but the worst part about it was the fact that it was actually working on Raven.

'You know, there's a sense of irony to your pain Robin.' Robin was smirking through all of this, 'If only Starfire were here to see this.' _She would cry buckets for you_ At that, Robin began to add more weight to his arm, which essentially forced Raven to the ground with Robin on top.

'Ohhhh god the pain! You have to help me Raven please, I can't even stand up because of this' Robin's attitude always seemed more wilful, everytime he was around Raven.

'Alright, alright Robin, I'll heal you, just get off already!' Raven pushed Robin off. 'Raise your shirt a little for me please,' Raven got closer to Robin for a closer inspection of Robin's injuries. Robin looked at her with a mischievous smile (Which Raven ignored) and decided to just take off his whole shirt while he was at it. Raven was not impressed and was slightly irritated at that. _Charming_ 'What the hell are you smirking at?'

'Your reaction' Robin's reply made Raven go red. This satisfied Robin immensely. Raven saw the numerous bruises across Robin's back and punched it. 'Arrrrrrgggghhhhh! What the hell Raven? That actually freakin' hurt you know!'

'I know,' Raven motioned herself closer to Robin's side and began to inspect the bruises. 'Robin, how did this happen? I don't remember this happening with Chang at all. Do you remember how you got these bruises?' _How did he walk this far without resting?_ Robin's smirk died at that. He looked in another direction away from Raven's face.

'Don't worry Raven, the point is you're safe. That's all that matters,' Raven did not know what he meant by that but proceeded to place her hands on his body. It would take at least 5 minutes to heal Robin's wounds. The touching sensation of Robin's back muscles made Raven feel slightly embarrassed but because of Robin's sudden serious demeanour, nothing came of it.

For the rest of the healing process, the two remained in silent. Actually, the healing process was a lot faster than she anticipated. It was amazing how "connected" she felt, when she was healing Robin liked that. She felt like she was being massaged a little bit. She felt ominously happier and also felt a sense of relief washing over her. After she was done, Robin put his shirt back on and Raven handed his communicator back.

'Lead on' she held out her hand to encourage him to lead. Robin nodded and continued on with Raven by her side, every step of the way.

" _Intimacy is key for a stronger bond_ "

* * *

 **A/N: Anyway, thanks for reading and please review.**

 **I could write a little more, just to get both titans back home but I figured I've withheld this chapter long enough. But to anyone who cares to know, yes it was a fair while before I actually uploaded a chapter. Over the past few days, I've been thinking about my magnum opus a lot and discussed the merits of the story, with a few friends.**

 **I even tried writing in a new method/style to see how my writing skills would go and reviews would help with identifying that sort of thing.**

 **Thanks for reading and reviews are ALWAYS appreciated :)**

 **P.S: Sorry for the half assed plot about Chang's earthquake generators. That was a suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuchh a boring scene to write to be honest. I just wanted to get pass that scene as quickly as possible, hence the lack of effort being put into that scene. Despite the fact that was my first action scene too at that.**


	5. Angrier, Stronger & Powerful

Robin was falling to an untimely death, due to the earthquake at Dr. Chang's mining facility. Raven saw Robin falling and sought to save him. She managed to move a few pieces of the surrounding debris, away from Robin to make it easier for the both of them. When she caught up to him and began flying her way through the falling debris of the area around them, a rock fell on top of her head and she fell unconscious.

They were falling again, but Robin saw an opening in the chasm below. A cave, with rail tracks leading out from the hole. At once, Robin quickly got out his grappling hook and shot its hook to the roof of the cave. Because there was no debris in the way of his shot, he was successful in his aim. He zipped up towards the cave with his grappling hook on one hand, while carrying Raven on the other. Right at the last second, he managed to detach himself from the hook and tumbled forward into the cave.

When they stopped moving, Raven was under Robin. The cave was stable for the most part. However, just as Robin started moving himself off of Raven, the ceiling on top of him started collapsing. Rocks of varying sizes started falling on top of Robin's back and he immediately held his ground to protect Raven. The rocks pelted at his back continuously and Robin then bowed his head below his chest. He had to make sure Raven was safe and unharmed and he refused to move an inch away from her, so long as the cave in continued. He yelled in pain and Raven was not waking up anytime soon.

This continued for a while but eventually the pain didn't even bother Robin to a certain point. Once everything settled down, Robin found himself collapsing on top of Raven. Enduring the pain of a thousand rocks being dropped on your back continuously, was suddenly all worth it at the touch and warmth of Raven's body. He actually began feeling quite comfortable in his current position at that time. He almost fell asleep himself but decided that breathing would probably be easier without all the stupid rocks in the way. Robin slowly began rising up against the rubble and weakly said, 'So … worth.' Robin then turned Raven to make her face down and began moving himself out of the rubble while dragging Raven out as well. Being careful not to let the rocks fall on top of Raven as he moves.

Once the both of them were safe outside the rubble, Robin began resting himself against the walls of the cave. Waiting for Raven to wake up…

* * *

" _A bond between enemies does not always lead to sadness_ "

Raven and Robin continued venturing through the caves shown on Robin's communicator. They were less than 50m to the open area that was ahead of them now. _What is up with you Robin?_ Robin's sudden serious demeanour was very off-putting for Raven. She didn't know if he was mad at her, or if it's about his injuries, or even why he's angry in the first place, if he's angry at all to begin with. It was an unsettling atmosphere for Raven. Very different from before she healed his injuries. It almost made her wish she didn't heal him in the first place. Especially considering that she was starting to feel a bit irritated herself. It was difficult for her, because the most annoying part about Robin was just how mysterious and unpredictable he can be sometimes. That's just the kind of person Raven has a bond with.

After a while, the ground became metal and Raven and Robin now started making noises with each step they made. Raven was in deep thought. She began walking absentmindedly and bumped into Robin in the process. 'Robin, what happ-'

'Shh, I hear something,' Robin said. They were less than 20m closer and can now see the area ahead through the entrance. There seemed to be some technical interference that was messing up Robin's sonar map. 'Raven, try to find out what exactly is over there, in the open area ahead of us,' Robin ordered.

'A please would be nice,' Raven replied. 'Azarath Metrion Zinthos,' she quickly used her astral projection to go through the caves and saw that there were Slade bots. They weren't fully operational, with some seemingly combustible at any moment. It was clear that it was an old facility of Slade's. Whether or not they were a threat was the real question.

When Raven's spirit returned to her body, Robin asked, 'Well, what did you see?'

'Slade bots. It appears to be some kind of old underground mining facility that Slade used to use. I'm not sure how much of a threat those Slade bots are but -'

'Slade bots?! How many were there? What are they doing there? Was Slade there? Was Slade there?!'

'Calm down Robin! Keep your voice down. Those Slade bots can probably still fight us, if they spot us. I wasn't out there for long, okay? I didn't see Slade – at all!' Robin grabbed Raven by the shoulders, upon asking if Slade was there. Raven squirmed out of from his grasp and was starting to feel more irritated, the more time she spent with Robin.

Her powers were now starting to act up again. 'Robin, you need to calm down. You have been irritated by something, ever since I healed you. Slade is dead, okay? Let me repeat that – Slade is dead!' Now Raven needed to start calming down. Her eyes started glowing at this and Robin was beginning to feel sorry now. Raven said the next few words with a sense of sorrow in her voice, 'I don't like it when you get this serious Robin. It can be quite scary for me, when you're like this. Slade is dead and Slade bots are not going to change that. And whatever's on your mind right now, that's got to do with me, you need to let it go because we're on a mission, okay?' A silence started brewing between the two titans. Her eyes stopped glowing but Raven was left with a gloomy look to her face. She began feeling a little sad because of Robin's guilt. It was clear that the emotional interchange between the two titans was getting even more stronger.

Robin really wanted to hug Raven at that moment, just to give her a little comfort. He prevented himself from doing so and instead said, 'Y- Your right Raven, I'm sorry. I- I just have too much on my mind right now. It's just been so long since we were together like this and I can't help but feel-'

'Look out!' Raven ducked down to the floor, dragging Robin along with her at the grenade that flew overhead. Using her powers to fly the grenade at a further distance; than what the laws of physics would have preferred, the sudden explosion caused the cave to collapse again. The explosion blocked the two titans, with a horde of broken Slade bots by the entrance ahead.

" _The victims of a strained and damaged bond, leave scars._ "

'Titans GO!' Robin exclaimed. At that, Raven proceeded to use her powers to drag down a solid wall of earth to the floor. This worked to help provide five minutes of cover, if they stood where they were currently positioned.

'Azarath Metrion Zinthos!' Her usual chant forced the earth wall to shoot out from the cave, knocking the Slade bots standing by the entrance. Robin quickly utilised his grappling hook to zoom out from the cave and kicked two extra Slade bots in the process. Raven followed quickly behind, flying out in break neck speed.

Once she got a better view of what was surrounding her, she was able to use her powers all the more effectively. The area had quite the familiar look to it: with an area that was shaped in a circular fashion, with multiple levels above and below, holes along the rim of the circular horizontal plane, with metal pathways connecting the holes, like a star but with a polygon-like pathway – to stop them from meeting in the centre and all the levels had the same design. Certainly a Slade facility, if anything.

'Grrrrrrrrr ahhhhhhhhhh!' Robin attacked every single Slade bot that he could see and got a lot more violent than usual. He jumped from one Slade bot to another with his Bo staff, in flowing fashion. It was like watching a snake switching between poisoning multiple preys at once. He even attacked ones that weren't even attacking him – or even doing anything at all. The fact that the Slade bots weren't even fully operational, just made Robin appear all the more brutal. He attracted more and more 'working' Slade bots to his location. The more the odds stacked against Robin, the more ruthless he became. If he kept it up, he might just lose himself to his lust for violence and rage. 'Arrrrghhhhhhh!' His yells attracted more and more Slade bots to his location. Pretty soon, he just might wipe out the facility of all working Slade bots singlehandedly. 'Grraaaaaaaahhhh!' The ferocity of his attacks could only be matched by the woman he shared a bond with. That was more deadly than the force of Robin's Bo staff.

Raven took out a few Slade bots on her own as well. She telekinetically threw at least six Slade bots into a wall. However, by the time she swayed another group of Slade bots off the rails, she started to notice how powerful her emotions were getting and how angry she started to become. 'Azarath Metrion Zinthos, Azarath Metrion Zinthos, Azarath Metrion Zinthos,' she repeated her incantation in hopes to calm herself down before all hell broke loose. She rubbed her temples and started descending to the platforms below. Unfortunately, this made her a lot more vulnerable for Slade bots to attack her. When she sensed herself getting surrounded, she would erupt small bits of her power to prevent them from getting closer to her. However, she couldn't keep this up for long. She was nearing her limit with each passing second. She dropped to the floor with glowing eyes, which slowly started to morph into four eyes. She was like a glass cannon, hanging by a thin thread of hope (That was attached to Robin).

Robin was dead tired. The next group of Slade bots was probably the last group he could take on. Fortunately, his side of things was starting to relax a little with piles upon piles of Slade bots now surrounding him. _Robin!_ But before he could even catch his breath, Robin sensed that someone was in danger. 'Raven!' It took him a split second to realise who needed his help. And for some reason, he started feeling guilty all over again. He looked around to find her and saw her – all by herself, surrounded by Slade bots.

He suddenly felt like he had just been injected with 15 adrenaline shots and in a flash of light, he attacked all the Slade bots surrounding Raven, in amazing fashion. It was incredible. He didn't know what came over him. One minute, he wanted to collapse because he felt like the muscles on his limbs burned but before he could even catch his breath, he ignored any sense of danger from his surrounding environment (Including himself for that matter) and only concentrated on one solitary thing.

* * *

" _There is no such thing as an_ unbreakable bond"

Once all the Slade bots were finally gone, Robin found himself collapsing from sheer exhaustion. He huffed and puffed for a craving desire of oxygen in his lungs. He collapsed in front of Raven. From his view towards the ceiling he motioned his head, away from his chest to look at Raven.

She felt scared. She placed her hands on her head, with fingers digging into her hair and her thumbs by her ears. Her elbows were facing in the direction of her bending knees, that were close to her chest. Tears were now brimming in her eyes and she clenched her teeth together in frustration. She was so close to losing herself to her emotions. She felt so ashamed of herself.

With another slight burst of energy, Robin turned his body so his chin was on the floor now. He pushed himself up to get on the same level as Raven. He was eye level with her now. He looked at her with the eyes of guilt and guilty eyes always cried. Robin didn't cry though, he was close but he didn't. Whether or not Robin felt sad from the bond or from guilt didn't matter at that moment. Robin then hugged Raven and held her tight. Raven was taken aback from this sudden gesture but found herself slowly forgetting her troubles in response to this as well. 'I'm sorry Raven, this was all my fault,' Robin said. He didn't know how it was all his fault but he knew, he had something to do with Raven's panic attack. He wrapped his arm around her back and wrapped his other arm towards one of her shoulders. 'You told me to let go but I couldn't. I'm so sorry.'

Raven wasn't even listening to be honest. She just wanted to rest her head against Robin's left shoulder and forget everything that happened. After a while, it worked and Raven found herself a lot more calmer and happier than before. My god, did she want to hug him back but because her arms were trapped inside Robin's embrace, she couldn't move them. All she could do was just enjoy and feel this moment while it lasted. Neither of them knew how long they stayed that way. It didn't matter however because the point was that they both felt better because of it.

After they broke apart from each other, they looked into each other's faces until Raven looked down from embarrassment. KABOOM! And a computer just exploded in the background. Robin smiled at that, realising that Raven must be okay now. Tears still continued (somewhat) to fall down across Raven's face but they were tears of joy, not sadness. Robin sensed that would be the case however. 'Feel better?' Raven asked. Robin felt surprised to hear Raven asking something like that to him but he didn't realise its irony.

'Better now that your better,' Robin replied ironically. Raven slightly chuckled at that. 'Hey looks like I've got my sonar map back on now,' Robin held out his communicator and could now see the entire underground mining facility. It appears that the entire facility is built up like two cones attached to each other, by their bases. Maybe they could destroy their way out of the mines. However, it almost seems like they have to now because the grounded started shaking again. The ceiling above them was tumbling down on them now. With debris falling everywhere. 'What computer did you destroy Raven?!'

'How am I supposed to know?!' Looking at the familiar situation she found herself in, Raven came up with an idea. She looked at Robin for a second and tried something she wasn't sure would work. 'Robin, do you trust me?' She asked.

'What?'

'Do you trust me? Yes or no,' she stared at him, hoping for an actual descent response that did not return the question back at her. Robin returned the stare and ultimately conceited to Raven's plan, whatever it was. He nodded.

'Good,' she said. Raven held her hand out for Robin to grab. Robin complied with this gesture and decided to trust Raven. 'When I say go, throw an explosive at the peak of the mountain, okay?' Robin nodded but also thought that his bombs wouldn't be enough to break through the peak. However, because of Robin's calm demeanour at the present time, Raven felt confident in her abilities to go through with her plan.

An aura of mana started to permeate through both titans and they both felt a little bit stronger because of it. Looking up at her target, Raven focused her powers to a singular point before unleashing its fury through flying. Once she channelled enough potential energy into the both of them, she blasted off to the top of the mountain. Like a comet, Raven was flying with so much kinetic energy, that no matter how big or how hard some of the pieces of rubble were, they were no match for the power that both titans were exhibiting at that time. Each piece of rubble broke apart like crumbling cookies, at the might of the two titan's bond. Raven silently chanted her incantation to herself, focusing hard. Once she was less than 25m before the peak of the mountain, Raven said 'Titans GO!' Robin immediately threw his explosives at the mountain and made it brittle enough for Raven to break through. Raven and Robin conquered the mine and escaped through the peak of the mountain.

Once the two titans were out of the mountain, the rest of the mine collapsed. Never to see the light of day again. Once Raven felt the warmth of the sun on her skin, she finally realised she made it. 'Robin! We made it!' She felt happy and even hugged Robin in the heat of her mini celebratory moment.

'Yeah, we did Raven, we actually did,' Robin returned her hug. Once Raven looked up at Robin's face, she immediately noticed how close her face was to Robin's and pushed him away before he noticed. Once she calmed down a little, she noticed something rather strange. They were not on the ground yet. She looked at Robin for a moment before realising that he was floating.

'Robin! How can you…' she asked. She pointed to Robin's feet and he started to look down for the first time. Like breaking a placebo effect, once Robin realised what was happening, he started to fall again. _Oh shit_ Raven thought. She quickly flew down to catch him. She wasn't really sure what exactly happened but she could easily tell that it was the bond's own doing.

Once Raven caught Robin by grabbing onto his left arm, he said, 'Let's not do that again.'

Raven smiled in response and said 'Deal,' happily.

* * *

" _One does not simple_ ignore _the bond_ "

After escaping the mines of Slade, Raven flew back to civilisation, while carrying Robin by his left arm. Once they landed back out onto the streets of Jump City, Robin tried to call Cyborg to pick them up. 'Cyborg pick up! Oh my god,' Robin said. Now that both titans were out of the mines, Robin got a better signal from his communicator. Both titans were tired as hell and really wanted to go back home.

'For the last time Beastboy, I'm not making you a mo- Oh, Robin. Oh my god Robin! Where the hell have you been? What the hell happened to you man? After the earthquake back at Chang's hideout, we couldn't find you or Raven at all,' said Cyborg.

Robin looked at Raven before responding, 'It's a long story Cyborg, anyway, can you please pick me and Raven up?'

'Oh yeah, gee man, I'd love to but the thing is I kinda got to fix up the tv because Beastboy thought it would be a good idea to inst-'

Raven grabbed Robin' communicator and interrupted Cyborg by saying, 'Cyborg, just get your ass down here, NOW!'

'Yes mam',' Cyborg said out of fear.

* * *

20 min later

* * *

When Cyborg arrived to their location, he saw both titans happily chatting together. 'Y'all asked for a ride right?'

'Finally,' Raven frustratingly said. Both titans entered Cyborg's car and drove back to the tower. Robin sat at the back this time, instead of taking the front seat.

'So, what were you two love birds doing after the earthquake?' Cyborg asked curiously. Driving continuously through downtown.

'After the earthquake, we were exploring a mine together and found an old underground facility with a bunch Slade bots,' Raven said in response, completely missing Cyborg's use of the term "love birds."

'Slade bots?! What the hell were they doing in a mine?' asked Cyborg.

'Not sure but I singlehandedly took out nearly every single one of those Slade bots myself, you know,' Robin said in response. Raven looked at him in annoyance and Robin immediately remembered what happened back in the mines.

'Sounds like you two had quite the adventure together, anything else happened?' Cyborg asked.

'Well actually -' Robin was about to explain a few strange things that happened between him and Raven but she stopped him before he could.

'That mine might have been what Dr. Chang was trying to find with his earthquake generators. What happened to Dr. Chang actually? Did he get away?' Raven tried to change the subject to something else.

'Nah we got him, once the earthquake ended he was all by himself outside in the desert. You should have seen the look on his face, when we found him lying on the floor like a loser,' Cyborg started laughing, when he remembered it all.

'Was it as funny as Robin's line about shaking a professor to keep the city to stay, or something?' Raven asked monotonously. Cyborg continued to laugh, in response to Raven's comeback. This time it was Robin who looked at Raven with annoyance. This made Raven smirk a little.

'Still not as bad as Beastboy's jokes,' Robin said, in a desperate attempt to shift the focus away from his terrible opening one liner. Cyborg immediately stopped laughing at that.

'That's true,' Raven and Cyborg said in unison. Everyone can agree that nothing was more lame than Beastboy's jokes. That was always the silver lining to hold onto, when your own witty comebacks didn't work out.

Cyborg continued to drive, while talking to both titans at the back of his car.

* * *

" _A bond is one of the very few things that can transcend through all dimensions of the universe_ "

It was around five in the afternoon, when the three titans arrived back home together. Raven felt very relieved upon returning. She got out of the car and immediately began heading back to her room. Robin followed after her in response, while Cyborg brought out the pizza they bought during their trip back home. It was a long and tiring day for both Raven and Robin, and they just wanted some rest now. The bond definitely took a lot out of them.

When Raven arrived to the entrance of her room, she noticed something strange and turned around. There was Robin, standing behind her. 'Uhhhhhh, you need something Robin?' she asked.

'What? Oh wait, uhhhhhh, nothing nevermind,' Robin said, somewhat nervously. Raven twitched her left eyebrow at that.

'Well, this is my room and your room is on the other side of the tower, so … unless there's something you need, I'm going to take a quick nap before dinner,' She was just about to enter her room but Robin grabbed her shoulder before she could.

'I ummm, I just … I -' Robin couldn't seem to articulate his thoughts into actual words but he knew it had something to do with Raven. Somewhere deep inside Robin, he knew that once Raven shut her doors to him, he wouldn't see her for weeks. He was very reluctant to letting that happen, for some reason.

'When you realise what you want, come back to me,' Raven rudely hovered back into her room and used her powers to move Robin's hand away from the sliding door. Robin was just about to knock on her door but decided not to and he headed back to his own room afterwards.

Raven was finally back in the place where she felt most comfortable, and could not feel more relaxed. 'That's the end of that,' she said. She was just about to lie down on her bed but suddenly, her heart started clenching hard. She just could not catch a break today. _No, this can't be_ Her heart started to hurt. It wasn't a heart attack or anything, and she was perfectly fine (For the most part) but the pain was persistent. _Don't tell me this is the bond, this better not be about the bond goddammit!_ She got up and ran outside into the hall. She found Robin by the entrance of his room's door. 'Robin!' She called out to him. She weakly walked towards him as fast as she could.

'Raven?' Robin quickly ran down the hallway and saw Raven holding onto her chest in pain. 'What's wrong? Are you hurt?' He said out of concern. He put his hand on her shoulder to help her keep her balance as she tried to stand up straight. Once Raven got a hold of herself and looked up at Robin's face, she realised then, just how much stronger the bond has become. She didn't even realise the fact that she was coming out of her room, just to call out to Robin. She needed to weaken the bond, somehow.

'Robin, if it's all the same to you, I think it would be best if whatever happened in that cave, stays in the cave,' she said as best as she could, while also standing on her own now.

'What? Why?' Robin asked. It was a fair enough question to ask and Raven forgot about explaining the why as well. 'We already told Cyborg a lot of it already anyway.' It only took a couple of moments to come up with an appropriate response for this but Raven eventually got there.

'And don't tell him anything other than what we have already said to him, okay?' Raven said in hopes that this would be the end of the conversation. Robin looked at Raven with confusion and curiosity, a dangerous combination that signalled that this conversation was not ending anytime soon. Robin was somewhat willing to agree with this because after thinking about it for a moment, it would be hard to explain a few things to Starfire, had he told her everything that happened but something else was telling him that this was not the case for Raven.

'Why Raven?'

'Robin, I thought I told you wh-'

'Raven, why can't I tell the others about what happened?' It was more than likely, that this would be the direction this conversation was going to go but Raven needed to get things straight. Robin was basically mentally blocking Raven into a corner. This was not the time or the place to discuss this.

'Robin, please don't tell anyone about what happened in the mines,' she said in the shyest way possible. She was nearing her limit. If the conversation continued, who knows what would have happened. Robin was taken back at just how cute Raven looked, when she looked this shy and innocent. 'I thought you trusted me, didn't you Robin?' That was the nail in the coffin but it also frustrated Robin at the same time.

'Raven, your pushing the limits of my patience you know that,' he said in a serious tone. Raven was now getting angry, not at Robin but at the bond itself. She hated what this bond was doing to her relationship with Robin and hated the fact that she was hiding so much from him.

'I'm sorry Robin, I can't imagine how you must be feeling about all of this but I'm afraid that -'

'I don't even know what happened in that cave myself to be honest. How was I able to float back there? How were we able to break through that cave exactly? And how come your powers were getting out of control, when we were fighting those Slade bots?'

 _Because of you!_ 'Actually, what about you? Why were you acting so moody after I healed your back back there? What exactly happened before I woke up in that cave Robin? And I thought you were over Slade,' Raven crossed her arms and started to look rather annoyed at Robin's interrogation of her.

Robin scoffed at that, out of annoyance, 'Quit trying to change the subject Raven!'

'Robin, I've had a long day already. I don't have the energy or the concentration to do this right now! This is not the time or the place to do some-'

'Awww, what the hell are you guys arguing about?' Beastboy asked. The two titans appeared to be arguing outside of Beastboy's door.

'Nothing!' Raven said. She used this opportunity to walk away from Robin and end this discussion. 'Right Robin?' She glared back at Robin, when she said that. Robin remained silent and folded his arms in response. Beastboy looked at Raven, as she left for her room.

When she was gone, Beastboy returned to look back at Robin's direction and said, 'Hey Robin, what happ-' Unfortunately, Robin vanished before Beastboy finished asking his question. 'Dude! I hate it when you do that! Hrmmmmm,' he eventually returned back to his room.

* * *

" _Bonding through hate can lead to very negative consequences_ "

For the rest of the night, Raven was suffering the effects of a bond that was greatly stronger than before. She found the emotional interchange to be much more powerful, the strain on her heart was more potent than before and in general, she found that she was starting to miss Robin's company a lot more. At dinner, though, when the titans gathered together for pizza, it appeared that Robin complied with Raven's request to not tell everyone, everything that happened in the mines.

Everything went smoothly on the outside and once dinner was done, everyone went to bed. Starfire however, asked Robin to stay behind to talk with her. This made Raven exceedingly worried because she knew what that meant. However, Raven found that the emotion of love was not as effective as before, for some reason. Out of all the aspects of the bond that became stronger, she was dreading the times for when Robin and Starfire began being together again. But once they were, Robin's usual emotional responses of love were just not that effective anymore. If anything, it grew weaker instead. This shocked Raven but she also felt relieved at this notion because this infinitely lifted at least one gigantic weight from her shoulders. _At least there's one positive thing that came out of today_ Raven began looking at the upcoming days with a more hopeful outlook, which is something she felt grateful for.

* * *

 **A/N: Anyway, thanks for reading and please review.**

 **Upon retrospect, I will say that after having written five chapters of this story, it really makes me cringe to go back and read the first four chapters myself. If anything, I actually kind of want to go back and spend the next few days, rewriting the first four chapters to be honest. However, I'm (Probably) not going to do that because I kind of like the idea of seeing the progression of my writing skills like this. It still disappoints me to read some moments in this story and say to myself, 'Man, this should be a lot more impactful than it is, how did I not set this scene up better?' Hopefully, I can write up the next chapter soon.**

 **I still think my writing skills suck ass though.**

 **UPDATE (31/03): I promised myself that I would try to upload a chapter this month (March) but because I am a disorganised person, I failed. Especially considering one of you guys messaged me about uploading another chapter, I figured you guys need some form of explanation to why I haven't updated this story.** **Unfortunately, (At the moment) writing is really more of a hobby for me and not something I can dedicate days into. As much as I would like to put in six hours worth of writing a day, my schedule just does not offer much time for me to write as it use to. I am SUPER busy at the moment so I can't really afford to spend time writing a lot nowadays.**

 **I can't say precisely when I would be able to upload the next chapter but that having been said, I will say that I have at least written around 3000 - 5000 words (Yes, its going to be one of those chapters) and based on that, that is around 55% of Chapter 6 done.**

 **However, THIS STORY IS NOT DEAD. Let me repeat that: THIS STORY IS NOT DEAD. I do intend on finishing this, I can promise you that much.**

 **TL;DR: Too busy to write, probably upload next chapter in three weeks (Maybe, probably, don't quote me on that. Actually I don't know. Hard to say at this point. But probably anyway).**


	6. The Coming of the Inevitable

" _Strengthening the bond is tough but breaking a bond is tougher still_ "

Everything went back to normal for the next following days of the Teen Titans. On the surface, everyone went about their usual businesses, however, Raven and Robin were suffering the effects of a bond that was becoming more demanding than ever.

The only way Raven could cope was not only adding two more hour's worth of meditation time to her schedule but also focusing all her energy and attention towards things that she hoped would distract her from her emotional bonds with the boy wonder. Basically, she spent more time reading books inside her room for the most part of her days.

'Maybe I should talk to Cyborg about this,' she said to herself. _After all, he's not totally in the dark about all of this, certainly more approachable than Robin at this stage_ She felt like as if she was trapped in a birdcage, both mentally and emotionally. She decided to do things a little differently, in hopes that it would alleviate some of the pain away from her.

She got up from her bed, grabbed a few books for her to carry and decided to take one small step outside and take one gigantic breath before walking out of her room. She looked both ways from one end of the hallway to the other and saw no sign of Robin. She stepped out and began walking towards the elevator and pressed the button for her to go down. However, when the elevator was going up, Raven sensed a presence she felt nervous about. When she realised someone was inside the elevator, she tensed up and prepared for the worst.

The elevator's alarm ringed, the doors opened. The person inside the elevator was Beastboy, 'Oh, hey Raven! Yeesh, I haven't actually seen you for a while now that I think about it. Where are you heading? Hey check what I got from the Gamma Gaming Centre,' it appeared Beastboy had recently returned from shopping in the city and was now in the process of showing Raven another video game he bought in a very excited manner.

'It's the new Robotechno Wars: Legacy of the Volkor deluxe edition! You should totally play it, it has everything! New stories, new characters and apparently, you can actually use the lightswords in this game like a real Space Knight! Isn't that so cool! Last night's midnight launch was off the hook!' Beastboy's wild eccentric four year old nature of explaining things, showed that Raven's unimpressed look meant that she was totally not impressed at all, like at all.

'Move,' Raven replied with one solitary word that made Beastboy look as if he just shat his pants. Beastboy became too scared to actually move now and in response, Raven cruelly used her telekinetic powers to send the video game flying to the other side of the hallway, which made Beastboy instinctively turn into a cheetah to catch up and save his $180 video game. Raven entered the elevator afterwards and pressed the button for the lobby.

During her time in the elevator, she suddenly felt her chest tightening and a certain type of pain in her body. Nothing physical but something emotional. It was the bond again. _Azarath Metrion Zinthos, Azarath Metrion Zinthos_ Her emotional attachments towards the boy wonder was taking its toll on Raven's mind and body. She was starting to lose some of her balance through this but she did her best to make sure she didn't blow up the elevator she was in.

Random moments of emotional pain made her feel like there was a hole in her heart. Raven thought about Robin everytime she felt this way and the first thing that always popped in her head was _I should tell him now, yeah_. The hole in her heart was big but not big enough.

 _Azarath Metrion Zinthos_ When the pain started fading, she looked up and realised the elevator was nearing the lobby. When she got out the elevator, she arrived outside of the tower and the sun shone down on her face like a sudden heatwave passing by. It was too hot for her to keep her hood up, so she took it down and found her usual spot behind Titans Tower.

Ever since the incidents back in the mines, Raven has grown rather fond of wanting to read outside by the seashores. It was a new calming environment for Raven to immerse herself in, and one of the most effective ways to deal with the bond.

When Raven got comfortable in her position, she finally opened up one of her books and began reading. She continued to read the book that would explain more aspects of the bond, but still wanted to know more information about how to break the bond as well. _Different parts of the body offer different possible forms of communication, between both parties involved in their bond. The mind allows for a mental connection to be formed, the heart allows for an emotional connection to be formed and should the individuals exhibit special powers and abilities, one could also su … The bond can be expanded to involve all sorts of experiences that will give it strength, as intimacy is key for a stronger bond. Which can also work both ways because if bonding through love can lead to a stronger bond than bonding through hate can lead to very negative consequences. Unfortunately, there is also …_ Raven found herself skimming through all sorts of information about the bond but she couldn't seem to find anything about not just the experience of breaking the bond but actually breaking it. _Should a bond between people of conflicting wills be made, than … Much like breaking a bone, breaking a bond_ Raven's eyes grew exceedingly focused, when she read those lines. She went back a few sentences to properly read the paragraph and found that:

 _There is no such thing as an unbreakable bond. However, one does not simply ignore the bond and the act of_ shattering bonds _cannot be done by simply just straining it to such a degree that both participants lose their minds in the pain of doing so. After all, the victims of a strained and damaged bond, leave scars that cannot be healed by the power of time. Even if one of the participants is immortal. A bond is one of the very few things that can transcend through all dimensions of the universe and should be handled with care. As such, the act of breaking it should also be done with supreme amounts of care and consideration. Much like breaking a bone, breaking a bond can be done by looking at the bond in its physical manifestations and destroying it as a result._

 _It should be noted how dangerous breaking a bond is, as the process of doing so (No matter the method) is excruciatingly painful. People are different; therefore, each bond behaves differently and the methods of destroying it would differ between bonds as well. The stronger the bond, the harder it is to break and should the participants involved have such a strong bond that it exhibits symptoms of: emotional interchanges, dream sharing and random moments of telepathical communications, breaking the bond is probably a loss cause at that point. It's a two-way process that requires both participants to be willing to die for one another._

Raven stopped reading after the last two sentences. She needed some time to properly think about what to do now now that she knows all this information. _Breaking the bond is probably a loss cause … both participants have to be willing to die for one another_ Raven found herself in a bit of a paradox, the more she kept thinking about it. Either way, if she wanted to break the bond than she has to tell Robin about it.

Suddenly another emotional surge started to pervade through Raven and yet again, she felt weak. _They're getting more frequent_ now However, this time it was different. The pain was so powerful, Raven wasn't able to control her emotions this time. The emotional surge happened so unexpectedly for Raven, she didn't have enough time to fight it. Raven blew up the ground beneath her, leaving behind a crater.

When Raven regained control over herself, she looked around and was horrified to see the power this bond was capable of. Her usual spot was destroyed, by the bond. _I'm done, it's time to tell Robin_ She would have taken the time to fix up her spot at that moment but it was getting too dark now. _I've got plenty of time, I can do it later_.

* * *

It was around dinner time, when Raven got back to the tower and what she saw was quite the scene. 'Come on Starfire, I can handle the kitchen tonight. Really, your time is not for another … 200 days remember?' said Cyborg as he was effortfully trying to pry away the ladle from Starfire, who was effortlessly holding the ladle with ease.

'But is that not what you said the last time I tried to cook Cyborg? In fact, if I recall you even said the exact same number of days as well. By my calculations, it should technically be -11 days instead,' Starfire replied. Cyborg was really trying emphasis the phrase " _Starfire you really don't have to cook_ ," to the green grass stain that was playing video games on the couch but he didn't seem to pay any attention at all. No sign of Robin though.

'Where's Robin?' Raven asked. At that, Starfire immediately let the ladle go and Cyborg was sent flying off towards a wall.

'I myself would like to know as well, usually he would also be here, helping to set up the plates and cups but I'm afraid I haven't seen him since we arrived back to the tower,' Starfire said worryingly. _Did she say they she just went out on a date with him?_ Raven thought.

'Oh, hey Raven, I've been looking for you,' Robin said in Raven's ear. Raven yelped at not only Robin's presence but also at the sensation of feeling his breath right at her ear. He seemed to have appeared out of nowhere to scare everyone in the room (Except for Beastboy). When Raven backed away from him, Starfire went over to quickly give one of her famous bone crushing hugs. 'Eeek! Thanks Starfire,' Robin said weakly.

'Oh Robin! Where were you?' Starfire asked.

'Well, when we got back I was actually looking for Raven, I wanted to check on her and see how she was doing but couldn't seem to find her myself but then I heard an explosion outside, behind the tower,' Robin looked at Raven, when he said that last part. Out of embarrassment, Raven blushed in response. Internally, Robin felt satisfied at that; seeing how Raven didn't put her hood back up.

'An explosion? I didn't hear anything,' said Starfire, while breaking the hug apart.

'Judging from the shape and look of the crater, my guess was that it was Raven's doing. Were your powers acting up Raven?' Robin asked.

'Uhhhh, yeah, sorry about that. I'll fix that place tomorrow morning, I promise,' said Raven. She tried not to look at Robin's face too much but his very presence was enough to make her chest tighten hard. To her, it seemed like every second she spent with the boy wonder made the bond stronger than ever.

'You know Raven, if there was anything I could do to help, I can always -'

'Oh my god! How can anyone beat Yoreo's final boss?! He's so freakin' OP! Hey Cyborg, what's for dinner? What?! How come dinner's not ready? What were you guys doing for the past two hours!?' Unfortunately, Beastboy's rage quit interrupted Robin before he could finish what he was saying. Cyborg immediately gave Beastboy a death glare, but didn't realise the fact that dinner was getting burnt now.

'Oh sweet Jesus!' Cyborg yelled.

* * *

After dinner, most of the titans went off to bed. Cyborg and Starfire turned in for the day but Beastboy decided to continue playing. 'Beastboy, don't tell me your planning on pulling an all nighter for this, are you?' Robin asked.

'Dude! Just let me finish a few more side quests for Dorrath ze Ingor and then I'll go to bed,' Beastboy said. Raven and Robin looked at each other in response to that, with Raven shrugging her shoulders expressing, 'I don't know.' They soon left Beastboy, with Robin turning off the lights to the operations room.

'I swear to god, he's going to gain like 20 kg from playing video games,' Raven said as both she and Robin entered the hallway. The noises from Beastboy's video game could still be heard from where they were standing but it wasn't loud enough to keep the team from sleeping.

'Hmmm, maybe I should make him do 500 laps around the gym,' Robin said.

'Make sure you make him do it in his normal form, if he transforms into a cheetah, he won't lose anything,'

'I thought animals would make him lose more, if their metabolism burnt calories faster,'

'Would that translate well, when he turns back to normal?' There was a slight pause between Raven and Robin, as Robin contemplated about what Raven just said. 'That's actually a good question,' during that time, Raven was starting to feel something she had not felt for quite some time. She emotionally felt the hole in her heart starting to fill up. She was feeling fairly happy being in Robin's company.

However, she soon started to slowly realise that she was in a moment that she had been trying to avoid, the whole day. She should take this moment to tell Robin about their bond but unfortunately, she failed to take into consideration how difficult it would be to confess something like this. Anxiety was starting take over Raven's mind. She needed to play her cards right with Robin, so as to not make things awkward between the both of them.

'Robin, I have … something, something I want to say you,' Raven was composing herself as best as she could but she just couldn't figure out what to say to Robin. _I should have practised this_ she thought. Robin perked up at this and felt anxious and curious to hear the secrets Raven held. 'You see, we have a … and I think that,' Raven's mumbled words were hard enough to understand but now Raven was speaking to quietly for Robin to hear. 'Yes, Robin, you and I have a -'

'Shhhhhhh, when you realise what you want to say, come back to me,' Robin interrupted. Robin did not like seeing Raven being nervous like this. He could feel the anxiety that Raven felt as she was trying to confess her thoughts like this and did not want to force it out of her. He was willing to wait.

To finish, Robin hugged Raven and held her tightly in his arms. 'I can wait,' he said softly. _No, nonononono stop! Please stop Robin_ Raven immediately closed her eyes to try and control her emotions, should something explode in the background. This kind of action would undoubtedly have very profound effects on the bond. The warmth of his embrace made Raven feel happy in ways she had never felt happiness before. Despite Raven's mind completely rejecting this; wanting nothing more than to run away again before it was too late, her heart felt joyously happy and wanted to stay in Robin's warm arms forever.

However, just as she was starting to feel comfortable in her position, she suddenly felt cold again. It was sudden and quick but when Raven opened her eyes, he was gone. She collapsed to the floor and held her hands close to her chest out of pain. All the happiness and comfort she was feeling before, immediately drifted away and from it, came pain. _Robin! Where are you? Please don't go!_ She needed to get back to her room before she loss control of her emotions again.

As best she could, she willed herself forward and before she knew it, she was at the entrance of her room. When Raven entered her room, she collapsed on the floor to rest her back against the entrance to her door. She couldn't get Robin out of her head now. She kept thinking about him and she could hear his concerns gnawing at her mind. _I hope you're okay Raven_ he thought. _Stop, stop, STOP!_ But it didn't stop there.

The pain radiated through Raven in all the worst places, worst of which being her heart. An aching breaking heart was now beating inside her and no amount of meditation could supress the feelings she held deep inside herself. Oddly enough, it was tough for Raven to consider if her heart was aching because of Robin's feelings or her own. Even if it were her own, was it because of the bond? Or something else? The more she thought about it, the bigger her headache became. _Why didn't I tell him back then? Why?!_ She was now kicking herself mentally.

It was just too much for Raven to bear. Suffice it to say, Raven became an emotional wreck at this moment. She fell towards the ground and tried her best to calm herself down but at this stage, she just might blow up Titans Tower sky high. She turned to look up at the ceiling and wondered how much longer she can take all of this. She closed her eyes waiting for it to all to go away.

Suddenly, Raven felt warm, strong arms holding her firmly and slowly, she forgot all the problems she was thinking about. With one arm holding her by her back and the other holding her closer, she did nothing but relax herself.

'Robin?' she said.

'Hey,' Robin replied. 'Don't worry Raven, I'm here,' a statement like that would've normally made Raven flare up in annoyance but this time, she felt relieved upon hearing that. She snuggled up against his chest, while resting her head against one of his arms. After a while; in the comfort of Robin's arms, Raven slowly started to fade away into a gentle albeit brief slumber.

* * *

A moment's later, Raven woke up suddenly and immediately surveyed her surroundings to see where she was. She realised she was in the infirmary but wondered why she was here exactly. She was sleeping on the window side bed, and to her left she saw Robin sitting on a stool, next to her. 'Robin,' she said. When he saw that she seemed to be feeling better now, Robin looked at her and smiled.

'How are you Raven? You feeling better now?' he asked. Moving himself closer to rest his arms on the bed.

'I feel … a lot better, definitely a lot better,' she rested her right hand against her head and composed herself thusly. 'Robin, why did you bring me here?'

'When I found you, you were in pain, a lot of pain. I brought you here just to check on your vitals and see if there was anything in the tower that could help you,'

'And what did you find?'

'Looking at your diagnostics, I can actually identify a lot of similarities between you and my vital signs, back when I was haunted by Slade.' Raven became quite concerned after hearing that. 'However, after a while, your vitals seemed to have unexpectedly calmed down for some reason. I'm still trying to figure why that's the case though. One moment your body acts all crazy and unpredictable, then the next your perfectly fine, out of nowhere. I don't have much of a basis to make a solid conclusion for this but Raven, do you know what happened?'

'Y- Yeah, I do,' Raven fell quiet for a bit after answering that question. After looking at Raven's reaction, Robin was able to connect the dots to know that he had some role in what happened.

'Do you need anything Raven? You want some tea, a book or something?'

'I …' after a moment's worth of silence, Robin got up and headed off from his seat.

'If you ever need anything just ring up my communicator, I'll be here before you know it,' however, before Robin could make three steps from his position, Raven grabbed his hand to stop him.

 _Don't leave me_ 'I ne- I uhhhhh, I … need yu …' Raven knew what she wanted to say but actually saying it was hard for her. 'Please stay,' she said solemnly, refusing to make eye contact as she said it. Robin smiled at this and somewhere inside, he knew that was the case right now. 'Uh, until I fall asleep,' she said hurriedly, 'at least,' but somewhat mumbled that last part.

'Okay Raven, don't worry I wasn't planning on leaving you anyway. I just wanted to get up to go get you another pillow to sleep with,' Raven initially felt a little embarrassed at realising her misunderstanding but so long as Robin didn't exit the room, she was fine. When Robin did get another pillow for Raven, he sat back down beside her and resumed things the way they were.

Raven still acted nervously of course but at least it wasn't taking its toll on her mind and body. It took her a while to properly contemplate the situation she was in but maybe it was now, that she would tell Robin about the bond.

'Robin, I -'

'Raven, whatever you have to say to me can wait for a better time. Don't worry, for now I think it's best to wait until you are comfortable with telling me. That's probably a better option for now,'

Another silence brewed before Raven said, 'I, th- thanks Robin for this, I really don't know how to return my appreciation for all of this.'

'I'm sure I can come up with something by tomorrow,' Robin said. Raven immediately flustered at the wide possibilities and implications that sentiment could mean.

'I'm going to bed!' Raven turned her back towards Robin and immediately pulled the blanket over herself but not before blowing up another stool, somewhere in the room. Robin looked around and didn't really notice much space left for him to sleep in.

'Say Raven, do you think you have enough space on that bed to share it with m-'

'Good night Robin!' Raven exclaimed. Something else exploded in the background and from the sounds of it, it sounded like one of the cabinet doors, from one of the medicine cabinets. Robin smirked in response of course. After a while, both titans naturally fell asleep and slowly drifted through the night until the next day dawned.

* * *

Raven could feel the warm sensation of the sun's rays piercing her pale skin. The gentle ocean breezes that struck Raven's body, helped to neutralise the heat from the sun to make Raven feel warm and calm. It took a while for her to finally observe her surroundings, and what she saw was a beautiful tropical island with sand stretching as far as the eye can see. _What is it that you want?_ The voice captured Raven's attention. She thought about the question deeply and tried to remember something, something important. _What is it that you need?_ 'I need …' she said. The questions seemed to hit Raven hard and she couldn't think up any answers to give no matter what. _What is it that haunts you?_ 'Haunts me?' Raven could not identify the source of the voice anywhere. She couldn't even sense its existence anywhere on the island, which led to Raven to assume that it must belong to a being that does not consciously exist. _Love, love is what haunts me_ she thought.

She felt so calm and relaxed in this place that it seemed too good to be true, to think this place actually existed. 'It's beautiful,' she said as she admired the scenery of the tropical island that she found herself in.

 _No need to fret, the answer lies through that door_ the voice said. Raven turned to see a simple wooden split door with no handles to open it. Shaped like an oval split by its width, there was a beautiful silver boundary surrounding the edges of the door. To see such a beautiful door erected on sand, sent chills up her spine as she pondered on what could be on the other side of that door. The only way to know was to push through the doors and into the unknown.

Raven would have much preferred it to just stay on the island and not go through the scary door but the idea of the answer being on the other side, completely drew her in. She walked through the door and for a split second there was darkness.

The next minute there was a massive glass circle for Raven to walk on that illuminated its area, with darkness surrounding the circle. And at the centre of it, Raven saw Robin sleeping on the ground.

'Robin!' she yelled, immediately running to his side. She wanted to get close to him, she needed to get close to him but just as she was just a few inches closer to him, she was blocked by something. Raven could feel an invisible boundary wall that stretched from one side of the circle to the other. She tried to use her powers to try and do something but she couldn't actually use her powers for some reason.

Robin squirmed a little on the ground and Raven could see that he was in pain. 'What have you done to him?!' Raven said, knowing there was someone there watching all of this unfold. _I haven't done anything, and so haven't you! That's the problem_ the voice replied. 'I can't do anything; can't you see I'm powerless to do anything?!'

 _Only you have the power to do anything about this Raven, don't pretend there is nothing you can do for him_

Raven contemplated about her situation and seeing Robin before her, she knew what all this meant. It was painful for Raven to think that this was the case but she had to accept the situation if she had any hope in saving Robin. 'How do I save him?' she said with a few tears coming down her face and her hands making fists in anger.

 _You already know the answer to that. All you need to do is -_ -

'IS THERE ANOTHER WAY!?' A silence came up and even Raven's tears came down silently now. The voice replied with a sense of disgust in response to Raven's continuous insolence. _You're waking a very thin line here Raven and if you're not careful, you may find yourself falling … to pieces_ the voice finished, with the ground beneath Raven shattering in half. One half of the ground stayed up but the other side saw Raven falling to the darkness below. 'Robin!' she yelled as she was falling; she felt cold and scared as she was plummeting to the eternal darkness below, to a place with no hope at all.

Raven woke up slowly and quietly, with the light coming from the windows bothering Raven's vision. She moved her hand over her eyes to cover the light coming in but when she did, her hands got all wet. She immediately got up, when she started remembering bits and pieces of her dream and suddenly she thought about Robin. She looked to her left but he wasn't there or anywhere. Despite her groggy status, she forced herself out of bed and tried to walk as quickly as she could to the door and find Robin.

Unfortunately, Raven just didn't have enough energy to make it and she collapsed on her knees, with her hands on the ground. _Where are you Robin? Please don't leave me_ She felt scared when she wasn't with Robin.

Suddenly, the doors to the infirmary opened and Robin came in with a tray of one cup of coffee and one glass of herbal tea. Seeing Raven on the floor made Robin immediately drop the drinks as he motioned himself closer to Raven out of concern. 'Raven, what's wrong? Are you okay? What happened?' he asked.

Raven could slowly feel her pains fade away, and she grabbed onto Robin for support. 'The tea,' she quietly said. She telekinetically moved the liquid back to their respective cups and moved her tea to herself. Despite its boiling nature now gone, it was still warm enough to enjoy. Robin looked at Raven as she drank it and knew that she was happy now.

Raven felt the stare of his eyes and returned the look in turn. For a brief but subtle moment, they're eyes were locked into each other's. Slowly and powerfully, Raven could feel her emotional barriers being slowly teared down by the person she shared a bond with. She would've loved for this moment to last longer than it did but Robin didn't recognise Raven's desires to stay in this moment and broke apart from her.

The departure of warmth from Robin's body left her cold but not weak, 'Come on, we got to get going soon,' Robin helped Raven get up and moved to grab his coffee cup and exit the room.

'For what?'

'We've got a date.'

* * *

'I'm not going Robin,' Raven said, while being followed by Robin in the hallways of their bedrooms.

'Come on Raven, this could be a very important lead on how Slade's mask affected me,' he said, pleading to Raven's assistance in the case.

'Robin, if this is your idea of a date, then I want no part in Starfire's misery,'

'What's that supposed to mean?' Robin twitched his eyebrow out of confusion.

'Don't worry about it, I still don't see why I have to go with you and Starfire though,'

'Because I don't want you out of my sight,' Raven turned herself to face Robin at that, 'Look, I know there's something you want to tell me and you're not ready to do that yet, I get that. But, until you are ready to tell me, you're not leaving my side until then, got that?' Raven felt very irritated by this and was about to say something to counteract that. 'After last night, we're staying in each other's company until then.'

'How does Starfire feel about this Robin? I can't imagine how happy she must've felt when you told her this this morning,' she sarcastically remarked. Robin fell a little quiet after that, which made Raven very concerned in response. 'You have told Starfire this, right?'

'Starfire will understand this, don't worry I'll expla-'

'I'm not going unless you tell Starfire Robin,' she said firmly.

This was a very big change in atmosphere, compared to what happened in the infirmary. Raven felt the need to stand firm in the face of her adversary in front of her, while Robin found it difficult on where to go from this. These instances were always dangerous because of just how unpredictable these moments can be.

'Fair enough but I'm holding your word to that,' Robin said. He admitted defeat to this and once Raven blinked, he was gone.

* * *

It was around 11 am in the morning, when Robin came back to Raven delivering his end of the bargain. 'It's done,' he said, in the operations room, with Raven sitting comfortably on a chair adjacent to the kitchen area. On the couch, Beastboy was fast asleep after having played Robotechno Wars for literally more than 24 hours.

'What?' she said in response.

'I told Starfire and she was okay with it,' he said with no change to his calm smartass demeanour.

'Really?' Raven had doubts about this and could believe that Starfire was in fact okay with saying that she was okay but did she actually feel okay about it, was the real question. 'Where is Starfire, Robin? I want to talk to her,' Robin was the protégé of The Dark Knight himself, who knows what kind of manipulative sneaky interrogative techniques he could have used on Starfire for her to be 'okay' with this.

'She's already at the lobby, waiting for us,' he said. At that Raven immediately got up for the elevator. Robin followed after her and when they got to the elevator he said, 'I suggest we don't keep her waiting.' The way Robin said that last part, immediately made Raven want to exit the elevator that both she and Robin were now occupying.

'Robin! Ohhh I'm so happy you are now ready!' Starfire said, while giving a bone crushing hug to Robin, 'I am most excited to venture into the park today. Raven are you okay? I hope today can make you feel better now, also you need not worry; promises must always be kept so I understand everything,' at this she winked at Raven, which made Raven exceedingly creeped out. _What the fuck did you say to her Robin?!_

'Yeah, I'm thrilled too Starfire, but we should probably get going now,' Robin said, breaking away from Starfire's hug in the process.

As soon as they broke apart from each other, Starfire quickly went off to the exit, while Raven quickly went up to Robin quietly saying, 'What the hell did you say to her Robin?!'

'I told her enough,' was his only reply.

* * *

When they all got to the park, they soon started walking to the crime scene Robin suspected. Being a few hundred metres away from the football fields, they soon found themselves venturing through a ditch that exhibited some curious features. 'So, what was this lead you found Robin?' Raven asked. All three of them walked along the ditch, with Robin leading the way.

'I managed to identify some familiar neurotoxins in my bloodstream, back when I was hallucinating and when I looked for some places where I could find things exhibiting the same properties, this place was brought up,' Robin explained, while leading the way.

'What do you hope to find Robin?' Starfire asked.

'Whatever my communicator finds I guess,' he says hopefully. 'At the moment, I'm just tracing the signature chemical structure of the gas compound in order to identify a source,'

'How do you know how to do all this stuff Robin?' _Sherlock ain't got nothing on the boy wonder here_ said Raven.

'Starfire and I have been investigating this for a while, so she helped in all the chemistry,' he said back. They soon found themselves by a large pipeline that caused Robin's communicator to start ringing. 'Bingo,' Robin said. Robin examined the pipeline and once he was sure that there was something suspicious he needs to look at, he smashed a hole inside it to reveal the water inside.

'You think the water shares similar properties to the gas you inhaled from before?' asked Starfire curiously.

'If my hunch is right, then this water is going to raise more questions than it answers,' said Robin. He took out a jar from this belt and used it as a cup to scoop out some water. Next, he took out a blue poppy and scrunched up its petals with this left hand and dropped it into the cup. With this, he would look at the chemical reaction between the water and the poppy in order to identify it.

The poppy dissolved perfectly. 'Damn it!' Robin threw the cup on the ground in response to the results from the jar. 'I knew it,' he paused for a second to think about what to do, now that he knows what exactly he was drugged with.

'At least the pipe leads out into the ocean, Robin,' said Starfire. Suddenly, Robin's communicator started getting large readings of the chemical compound he was investigating, 'Raven! Create a forcefield around us now!' But it was too late, Raven found herself facing her worst fears.

While Robin quickly put on a gas mask he had on his belt, Raven dropped to the floor with chills running down her spine. She started hallucinating about her birthday and the coming of the gem. The night quickly fell dark for her, with the ground shaking and splitting to reveal the army of the darkness crawling from its depths. _The gem was born of evil's fire_ 'No,' Raven said. She saw her friends frozen like a statue in front of her, with looks of horror on their face. _The gem shall be his portal_ 'No,' she could feel the pain and sorrows of all that will suffer the wrath of what was to come and she wanted to stop it, she tried so hard to stop it. The end was nigh high _He comes to claim_ Raven started using her powers in order to keep everything under control but it wasn't helping. _He comes to sire_ There was so much destruction, so much pain. _The end of all things -_ \- _Raven, Raven_ Suddenly, she felt a familiar sensation she missed and she no longer felt cold anymore. _Raven, it's okay, I'll always be there for you_ She could hear his thoughts pervading through the darkness and one by one, the darkness was stripped of its power over Raven.

Before she knew it, she was back to reality. After a brief moment of groggy relief, Raven woke up to see Robin cradling her head on his legs as he sat with his knees on the ground. 'What happened?' Raven said, as she got up from her position.

'Shhh, stay down,' Robin said, as he put Raven's head back on his legs, 'You should stay lying down for at least another five minutes, especially with the amount you inhaled,'

'What are you talking about? What happened Robin? Where's Starfire?' She wanted to get up but the headache made her feel terrible. She never realised until now, how many times she had found herself lying on Robin's lap.

'She's gone,' he said, 'She went back to the tower just in case I needed her to bring the others,' after a while, Raven was able to see a little more clearly now and started surveying her surroundings as best she could. 'But that won't be necessary.'

'I did this?' she asked, turning her head towards Robin after she had enough.

This caught Robin's attention, 'Listen to me Raven, with the amount that you inhaled into your system, it's almost a miracle that this was ALL that happened,' he said with a sense of urgency to this voice. 'Besides, you actually saved me a lot of time because of this. I thought I would need to ask for a lot more money to do this but since all the hard parts are done, all I need to do is just make a call.'

For the rest of the time spent there, Raven and Robin basically just enjoyed the moments they were spending in each other's company as Raven rested herself against Robin and while Robin calmly enjoyed the peaceful nature of the moment. Raven's guilt was soon replaced by a feeling of tranquility because of that. 'I don't know what you saw in your hallucinations but I promise you Raven, whatever this "gem" is, we'll stop it. I promise.' This caused Raven to solemnly return to a more depressive state of mind.

'I think I'm good to get up now,' Raven said, while pushing herself off from her position. However, just as she was about to fly off to Titans Tower, Robin grabbed her hand. 'What?' she looked at Robin with a curious and annoyed look.

'The date's not over yet,' he said with a nice smile on his face.

* * *

It was half past five in the afternoon when Raven and Robin got back from their "date." Aside from the bond making certain moments more intimate then it needed to be and some times when Robin was teasing Raven, they both had fun, maybe too much fun though. 'Did you have to tell the vendor we were dating!' Raven said as she was entering the lobby in a rush towards the elevator.

'What? The photo was cute, wasn't it?' Robin said in his defence, trying to catch up to her. 'Plus, she even gave us a discount because she thought we looked cute together,' this sent Raven in a bit of a hissy fit.

'Stop saying that!' Suddenly, one of the pieces of furniture exploded in the background.

'Anyway, did you at least like the bracelet I got for you?' Raven silently nodded in response to that, which made Robin smitten in turn. Once Robin caught up to Raven he said, 'That's good,' and held her hand, while smiling at her.

'But isn't this bracelet meant for couples? You can't give this to me Robin,' she said while admiring the bracelet on her other hand.

'For us, I don't think that really matters,' Raven quickly turned her head towards him curiously, as they soon found themselves in the elevator and silence was what was there between the two love birds.

'Th- Thank you for today Robin, sorry you couldn't spend it with Starfire,' over the course of the date, Raven felt a little guilty for robbing Starfire of an otherwise wonderful time. Robin looked to his side at Raven and found a million possible things he could say but found all of them to be too obvious and too upfront.

'Raven, my only regret for today was not being able to win the 1st prize for that punching machine competition,' he said with a heavy heart. 'Don't worry about Starfire, what matters right now is making sure that you're alright.' Robin squeezed Raven's hand gently before he exited the elevator with her. 'You had fun, right Raven?' He said turning back to face her in the hallways.

When Raven was confronted with that question, she suddenly realised how happy she was spending time with the boy wonder. She had fun, she was happy, she was happy being with Robin and she liked being happy. She held back a few tears that were starting to form in her eyes and she shut her eyes tightly before nodding silently.

With Robin still holding her hand, he went up close to her with his hand reaching up to her left cheek. He brought her head up against his head (Forehead to forehead) and dropped his hand to hold Raven's other hand. They stayed in that position for a while. 'I -'

Robin was the first to break away as soon as he sensed Starfire's presence nearing by. Raven didn't want to let go but when he did, she opened her eyes to see him walking off to his room with Starfire by his side. Instantly her heart was aching again. When Robin was far enough away to not notice Raven anymore, a single tear rolled down her left cheek because she had realised at that moment, she had fallen in love with the boy wonder.

* * *

The day passed by and it was already the next morning, and like as if they knew this was what would happen next, Raven was standing on the rooftop waiting for Robin. The doors opened with Robin coming out of them. As he began walking up towards Raven, Raven turned her body to face him to reveal a tear rolling down her face but with a solemn smile to accompany it.

'Robin, I have something I need to tell you.'

* * *

 **A/N: Anyway, thanks for reading and please review.**

 **OMG! A NEW CHAPTER?! Yes, I finally got it finished! (I mean the chapter, not the story of course)**

 **So according to my calculations, it appears that it has been 78 days since I last updated this story (Give or take a few days). So sorry for the VERY late update but I try to write up these chapters as best as I can, which can sometimes lead to very long days of me, trying to figure out what would happen in the given chapters I upload. Because this chapter was definitely the hardest to write up, in terms of what would happen next. I tried to compensate the long length of time of not uploading by giving this chapter a lot of content to read. Hopefully, my writing has improved in such a way for you guys to enjoy it well enough.**

 **I still find dialogue to be the hardest things to write though. Anyway, I'm satisfied with this chapter and would much appreciate it, if you guys reviewed it as well. Sorry for the late upload :(**

 **UPDATE (07/09): To those of you who are either rereading my story or are new to this story, here's a little update on a few things in regards to future chapters. Firstly, it has been a while since I last updated this story (I know) but that's not without reason, I assure you. As of this update, Chapter 7 is FINISHED. It's ready to upload and its ready for you guys to read. Unfortunately, I (As the author) feel that my story, at this point, can no longer be read on a chapter by chapter basis. I would want for you guys to just read everything, especially considering that this story has pretty much begun its Final Arc.**

 **I'm not sure how you guys would feel about this decision and if you'd prefer me to just upload the chapter, regardless, just PM me (I guess). Like I said before, I do intend to finish this story, which is not that far away at this point. Hopefully you guys are patient enough for this but it has been difficult to continue this, when my motivation for this story has been wavering in the past few months.**

 **I think I have about 2 – 3 chapters left of this story, so hopefully that should make you guys feel better about that.**

 **However, THIS STORY IS NOT DEAD. Let me repeat that: THIS STORY IS NOT DEAD. I do intend on finishing this, I can promise you that much.**

 **UPDATE (26/10): Chapter 9 is coming along nicely ... Anyway, I would like to post a PSA and just quickly RECOMMEND that, when Chapter 7 eventually does get uploaded - Please reread Chapter 6 so that you can refresh your memory of the recent events that have transpired in this story. Again, you don't have to if you have a good enough memory or if you've only recently just read this story by the time Chapter 7 is uploaded as it is only a recommendation.**

 **I'm only saying this because of just how long its been since chapter uploads.**


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